Personality Through
Creative Work
p When we speak of a fully developed person we mean primanly a person who is cultured and educated, i.e., a person possessing considerable spiritual wealth. However, Lenin wrote, “to be cultured we must achieve a certain development of the material means of production”. [246•*
p Material production is the foundation of social life, while the ability to produce the means of life, to work, is the principal and decisive ability of man. This ability to work underlies the formation and the development of all of his capabilities without exception. One can well appreciate that, for labour created man. Thanks to labour, 247 our distant ancestor, the savage, became a human being. Labour gave man food, clothes and a roof over his head. It not only protected him against the elements but also enabled him to conquer and harness nature. In work man has changed beyond recognition and has also changed the planet he lives on. Man’s hand, that remarkable implement of creative work, took shape in the process of work. “Thanks to work,” Engels wrote, “the human hand attained the high degree of perfection that has enabled it to conjure into being the paintings of a Raphael, the statues of a Thorwaldsen, the music of a Paganini.” [247•* Man’s musical ear, his eye which registers the superb loveliness of nature, his subtle taste and other sense organs emerged and developed in work. In the process of work man acquired an amazing gift, the ability to think and speak.
p Work is man’s greatest wealth. It is a vital condition for his life and all-round development. The joy of existence is the aim of man’s life. This joy is born only in work, and only in work does it find its full manifestation and development. Only in work does a person feel the fullness and diversity of life, acquire the dignity of a man and citizen and feel the friendship of his fellow men and the unity of his people and country. The purport of a person’s life is to work for the welfare of society, and therein lies genuine human happiness.
p “Cherish labour,” Maxim Gorky wrote. “Nothing makes man greater and wiser than work—collective, friendly and free work....
p “Man is great in work and only in work, and the more passionately he loves his work the more majestic he becomes himself and the more productive and beautiful becomes his work.”
p Labour is the most intricate complex of physical and mental efforts and of deep mental and aesthetic experiences; a person who does not work loses his best human qualities and, essentially, ceases to be himself. Disdain for work, and idleness corrupt man, enfeeble his mind and body and cause him to lose his sense of human dignity and civic duty.
248p Work has always been a factor of man’s development. However, the influence of work as a factor forming the qualities of a personality depend on social and economic conditions, on the division of labour in society and on labour’s technical equipment and organisation. In capitalist society, for instance, the chaining of people to one profession frequently leads to a lop-sided, ugly development of man who is then unable to engage in activities of any real diversity. “In the division of labour,” Engels wrote, “man is also divided. All other physical and mental faculties are sacrificed to the development of one single activity.” [248•*
p Socialism has emancipated labour from exploitation and created the social, technical and organisational prerequisites for the all-round development of the individual.
p The role of labour in the moulding of the new man increases in proportion to the progress achieved in building communism, the shaping of a communist attitude to work, the growth of the technical equipment and efficiency of labour and the improvement of the system of labour organisation. The formation of a communist attitude to work is the foundation for moulding the all-sidedly developed individual. Communist labour, which is highly productive and creative, facilitates the development of the talents and capabilities of the individual.
p Let us see why.
p First. Communist labour is founded on the latest scientific and technical achievements, which require a creative attitude to work, erudition and a high cultural and technical level. Inasmuch as under communism there are no bounds to technical and scientific progress, the possibilities for developing man’s intellectual qualities and for his special and general educational training are likewise boundless.
p Secondly. The absence of a permanent attachment to some one profession creates for man the possibility of changing his occupation, of selecting his occupation according to his interests. This is a powerful incentive for improving the personality, for raising the level of the individual’s special and general knowledge.
249p Thirdly. The high level of organisation of communist labour, the collectivist nature of labour relations, and the harmony of personal and social interests are an important factor forming lofty moral qualities, chiefly collectivism and comradely mutual assistance, a lofty sense of civic duty and concern for multiplying social wealth. Real friendship and comradeship, sincerity and the sharing of production know-how cannot help but enrich the spiritual life of the citizens of communist society.
Fourthly. The aesthetical attractiveness of the process, conditions and results of labour and its lofty creative spirit help to form in man lofty aesthetical feelings and thoughts.